Effects of alcohol and drugs — Utah Permit Test

Alcohol and other impairing drugs are involved in about 40% of all traffic crashes in which somebody is killed each year.

Two in five deaths on the road involve a driver who had been drinking or taking something. It is the single largest cause.

Alcohol and other impairing drugs are involved in approximately 40% of all traffic crashes in which someone is killed yearly.

Alcohol blurs a driver’s vision, slows their ability to focus, causes double vision, and reduces their ability to judge distance, speed, and the movement of other vehicles.

Judging a gap is nearly all of driving, and it is the first thing alcohol takes away without feeling like it has.

Vision—blurs your vision, slows your ability to focus, causes double vision, and reduces the ability to judge distance, speed, and the movement of other vehicles.

Alcohol and other impairing drugs slow a driver’s reaction time, which is their ability to process information and respond to the driving task.

Reaction time is the gap between seeing the brake lights and pressing the pedal, and alcohol lengthens it by yards.

Reaction time—slows your ability to process information and respond to the driving task.

Alcohol reduces a driver’s ability to distinguish colors.

Traffic control is built on color. A driver who cannot tell them apart is reading a signal by position and luck.

Color distinction—reduces your ability to distinguish colors.

Impairment starts with the first drink, and even one drink can affect a person’s ability to operate a motor vehicle.

There is no safe first drink, only a legal one. The change in judgment happens before anybody feels different.

Impairment starts with the first drink. Even one drink of alcohol can affect a person’s ability to operate a motor vehicle.

A person with one or more drinks in the bloodstream is visibly impaired and could be arrested for driving under the influence.

Visibly impaired means an officer can see it from outside the car. The legal limit is not the only thing that gets you arrested.

With one or more drinks in the bloodstream, a person is visibly impaired and could be arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.

Drugs and alcohol should not be taken at the same time, because alcohol can have an unpredictable effect on drugs.

The two together are not the sum of the two apart. Nobody can predict what the mixture does to a particular body.

Drugs and alcohol should not be taken at the same time. Alcohol can have an unpredictable effect on drugs, which will react much differently in your body.

Illegal, over the counter, and prescribed drugs can all affect a driver’s reflexes, judgment, vision, and alertness, like alcohol.

A drug from a pharmacy is still a drug. Being prescribed it says nothing about whether you should be driving on it.

Drugs can impact your driving and affect your reflexes, judgment, vision, and alertness, like alcohol.

About what share of fatal traffic crashes involve alcohol or impairing drugs?

About 40%. Two in five deaths on the road involve a driver who had been drinking or taking something. It is the single largest cause. Utah Driver Handbook 2026-2027, p.51: “Alcohol and other impairing drugs are involved in approximately 40% of all traffic crashes in which someone is killed yearly.”